Marketing Management – II

Group Assignment Report on

‘Main brand- Dettol’

‘Competitor brand- Lifebuoy’

Submitted To: - Prof. Mayank Bhatia

Submitted by: -
Name Roll No.
Anshul Chandak 201406
Darshana Jha 201412
Shashank Agrawal 201447
Shashank Jain 201448
Shruti Patil 201450

Section: D
Batch: MBA – FT (2020-2022)
Institute of Management, Nirma University
Date of Submission: 04rd January, 2021
Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1
Brand - Dettol...................................................................................................................................... 1
Industry Overview ............................................................................................................................... 1
Major Players ...................................................................................................................................... 2
Johnson & Johnson (Savlon) ............................................................................................................... 2
HUL(Lifebuoy) ..................................................................................................................................... 2
The Himalaya Drug Company.............................................................................................................. 3
Market Drivers .................................................................................................................................... 3
Distribution Channel ........................................................................................................................... 4
Integrated Marketing Communication Tools (IMC): ............................................................................... 5
Main Brand- Dettol ............................................................................................................................. 5
Competitor brand- Lifebuoy ............................................................................................................... 5
Advertising .......................................................................................................................................... 6
Online Marketing ................................................................................................................................ 9
Public Relation .................................................................................................................................. 11
Sales Promotion ................................................................................................................................ 13
Sponsorships ..................................................................................................................................... 14
Changes Due to Covid-19 ...................................................................................................................... 15
Recommendations for Future Promotional Activities .......................................................................... 21
References ............................................................................................................................................ 23
Introduction

Brand - Dettol

Dettol is a personal care brand of cleaning supplies and disinfectant and antiseptic owned by
the company Reckitt Benckiser. The brand started as ‘Dettol Antiseptic Liquid’ to be used for
disinfection of skin during surgical procedures, and now it has a wider product mix including
handwash, plaster, soap, shaving cream, body wash, liquid antiseptic, etc. It has been
positioned as ‘100% germ fighter with germ fighting and protection as the core value’.

Also, in extensive third-party lab testing, some products of Dettol family demonstrated
effectiveness (>99.9%) against 2019 Coronavirus (COVID-19). The brand grew strongly,
worldwide due to pandemic fuelling greater product demand.

Parent Company Reckitt Benckiser

Category Personal care brand

Sector FMCG

Tagline “Be 100% sure”

USP ‘first of its kind in anti-bacterial segment.’

Industry Overview

With a large number of players like HUL(Lifebuoy), Johnson & Johnson (Savlon), The
Himalaya Drug Company, Godrej, Reckitt Benckiser (Dettol) etc. there is a huge

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competition. The industry is being driven by the increasing global population, increasing
awareness on hygiene, current Pandemic situation.

Major Players
The major players of the industry are: HUL(Lifebuoy), Johnson & Johnson (Savlon), The
Himalaya Drug Company, and Reckitt Benckiser (Dettol).

Johnson & Johnson (Savlon)

Savlon brand owned by Johnson & Johnson, is a brand of antibacterial personal care
products, its product line includes cream, antiseptic sprays, sticking plasters, saop, liquid
disinfectant, etc.

Savlon

Parent Company Johnson & Johnson

Category Personal Care- Antiseptic

Sector FMCG

Tagline/ Slogan Heals without hurting; Make your house a safe house

USP Non burning antiseptic liquid

HUL(Lifebuoy)

Lifebuoy is a brand of soap marketed by Uniliver, the brand is positioned as ‘affordable and
accessible hygiene and health solutions’, and soap being its main product, besides it, its
product line includes hand wash, sanitizer.

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 Parent Company HUL

Category Personal Care – Soap

Sector FMCG

Tagline/ Slogan Healthy hoga Hindustan; Lifebuoy hai jaha tandurusti hai
waha

USP Lifebuoy provides 100% better protection from germs as

compared to ordinary soaps

The Himalaya Drug Company

The Himalaya Drug Company has launched it various personal health care products under
the name ’Himalaya’, and is known for its product being herbal and natural, its product line is
huge including various soaps, shampoo, face wash, etc.

Himalaya

Parent Company The Himalaya Drug Company

Category Personal Care- Herbal

Sector FMCG

USP Known for offering quality and fresh products

Market Drivers

• Increasing Global Population

Increase in the population, increases the number of potential customer and hence the demand.

• Increasing Awareness on Personal hygiene

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Increasing awareness on diseases, germs, infection, importance of proper handwash, bathing,
initiatives by Organisations like World Health Organization (WHO), World Hand Hygiene
Day, etc. making people aware, increases the demand, and supports the market growth.

• Product Innovations

Bringing product innovations and diversification of the product like organic products,
environment friendly, antibacterial, herbal, etc. attracts customers and fuelling greater
demand.

• COVID-19 times!

With the pandemic, the importance of hygiene and product frequency of use increased,
brands also came up with new formula and products, to meet Covid-19 criteria and the
increasing demand of the situation.

• Others: changing lifestyles, higher standards of living, increasing disposable income,

etc.

Distribution Channel

In terms of distribution channels, being an FMCG they are widely available, at retailer stores,
Convenience Stores, mom and pop store, pharmacy stores, also in hypermarkets and
supermarkets, online channels, etc. Hypermarkets and supermarkets hold a major portion of
these products. The products are available in all these channels, hypermarkets/ supermarkets
or retailers drive the growth of these products, however medicated products like medicated
soaps, and products of medicinal use disinfectants, etc like Salon, Dettol, etc. are increasingly
bought from pharmacies.

Online channels, Hypermarkets/supermarkets lets customers to check the product and

compare them to various variants and that of the other brand’s products. Convenience of
purchase through these channels, ease of checking out various variants of the product, etc.
drive the growth of the segment.

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Integrated Marketing Communication Tools (IMC):

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is a method of marketing the brand by

communicating the products, or service to the customers or prospects by using different types
of tools. The companies generally use eight different types of IMC tools to market their brand,
these are:

1. Advertising
2. Online Marketing
3. Direct Marketing
4. Personal Selling
5. Mobile Marketing
6. Public Relations
7. Sponsorships
8. Sales Promotion

Main Brand- Dettol

Competitor brand- Lifebuoy

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The IMC tools and techniques used by the main brand and the competitor brand are:

Advertising

By Dettol

The Dettol uses various channels for advertising the products to the customers such as
Television, Newspaper, Radio and Print Advertising. For television Dettol produces different
types of ads such as it produces ads according to the seasons, like for summer it has produced
an ad showing a mint cool variant Dettol soap which kills germs as well as keep your body
cool.

Dettol produces ads relating to some special days, like for instance it has produced an ad on
Mother’s Day which showed the mother child relation, where the child thanks his/her mother
for taking care of them by using different Dettol products. It also produces ads showing
different variants of soap, sanitizers, hand-wash, etc. that are available. Each of the
advertisement contains a tagline such as “Dettol be 100% sure”, “Maa mane Dettol ka dhula”,
“Dettol Dettol ho”, etc.

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For Newspaper it produces advertisement which showed the special discount or buy three get
one freer offer on soap, sanitizers, etc. It also produces printing advertisement on billboards,
hoardings, etc. with its tagline. It also produces radio advertisement for soaps, sanitizer, etc. in
different languages with the taglines.

By Lifebuoy

The campaigns of the brand are very novel compared to other brands. Since Lifebuoy is about
home consideration and cleanliness and therefore the foremost part the children get
increasingly influenced from the infections, therefore company attempted to place all its target
on the young children and it may be forestalled by utilizing the results of the organization. The
Brand initially started with the slogan of “Kitanuo se Asardar Suraksha” and also the tagline
of “Aaj Lifebuoy se Nahaya Kya”.

The company then, later on, brought many familiar faces such as Kajol and Ajay Devgan to
extend the popularity of the merchandise among the consumers. The brand, later on, mentioned
the utilization of Active Silver Technology in their products, as the result showed the use of
active silver which increased the immunity of the body to fight against the germs. Lifebuoy

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used various other slogans like “Hai Jaha Tandurusti hai Waha” and “Kare Kitanuo ka Safaya
10 second mai”

Along with Television and Digital media, Print Media was various medium which was taken
into consideration for advertising. Visual and graphic advertisements were published in
national newspapers and magazines to encourage people to keep up to maintain hygiene and
wash hands regularly.

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Online Marketing

By Dettol

For brand and product promotions Dettol also uses online marketing. In online marketing it
uses various platforms of it to promote the products such as social media, youtube, emails,
blogs, etc. The company produces special advertisement for Youtube which is shown between
the videos which customer are watching. Along with this Youtube also contains the television
advertisement of the company.

Dettol also advertise the products on email in a small box which appears on one of the corner
of the email page. It also promote the brand and products on social media platform such as
Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. On Instagram and Facebook it promotes the products by

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adding photos and videos, while on twitter along with photos and videos it also promote by
adding tweets also.

By Lifebuoy

Lifebuoy used hashtag challenge in Tiktok platform which is social media to creare awareness
about handwash during Covid-19 pandemic. They were reminding people to ‘wash your hands
like a boss’ on social media with the TikTok hashtag challenge #LifeBuoyKarona in India.
During Covid-19 pandemic, regular handwash was one among the main precaution given by
WHO for good personal hygiene and safety of people. This opportunity enabled various brand
to extend its handwashing campaign in India to TikTok to reach out to countless active online
users.

Indians were overwhelmed and started joining the TikTok #LifebuoyKarona hashtag challenge
including various social media personalities and celebs. This helped to increase online
viewership from 500 crore to a huge 2000 crore views in less than 7 days . This also helped
Lifebuoy to increase brand awareness among people.

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Public Relation

By Dettol

Dettol uses Public Relation technique also to promote the brand and the products. It organizes
various campaigns to spread awareness among the public about some government initiatives,
about how important it is to stay healthy, etc. The company also takes initiative to help the
people who lives in extreme weather condition or people who are facing the problems due to
disaster by providing products free of cost and sometimes also provides monetary funds. Along
with this the company also organizes events at schools to make aware the children that how
important it is to wash there hands with soap after using toilets and before having the food.

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By Lifebouy

Libebuoy targeted kumbh Mela to create huge public awareness on ‘Hygiene Living’. The
Kumbh Mela authorities understood the efforts made by lifebuoy to encourage people to adopt
the health habit of handwashing through various initiatives. They used Red stamp which they
called Stamp of hygiene was used to trigger people to wash their hands after using toilet. A
Visual red stamp was market on person hand before individual going to toilet by Lifebuoy
representatives. As individuals try to wash off the mark of stamp using water it wasn’t possible
which compelled them to use soap which helped to provide superior germ protection.

Lifebuoy soaps also distributed its products in Gurudwaras in Punjab in order to create
awareness. Their campaign was held in around 138 small towns in state Punjab which covered
around 36000 people.

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Sales Promotion

By Dettol

Dettol also promotes the brand and the products by using Sales Promotion, for instance dettol
provides a special discounts in supermarkets during the festive period such as during
Independence Day sales, during Diwali, etc. The company also provides a special discounts of
2 to 4% to the wholesalers and retailers during the rainy seasons in order to boost the sales.

By Lifebuoy

Lifebuoy have been promoting and increasing sales of company with the help of sales
promotion by giving discounts, attach a free product to the main product and to offer products

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in a combo at less price. This is strategy generally used by company in order to boost sales.
Lifebuoy generally see soap in combo of 3 or 4 with either giving a soap extra or at discount
price. Company also provides offers in handwash refill by either giving it at discount price or
giving some % extra additional as free.

Sponsorships

By Dettol

Dettol also provides sponsorship to many events like to international cricket matches or teams,
to other sports, to film award function, to films, etc. in order to promote the brand and products.
Recently Dettol has signed a contract of providing sponsorship to Austrilian Cricket Team in
ODI’s and in T20’s for four years.

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By Lifebuoy

Lifebuoy had collorborated into sponsporships with various associations like Pakistan Cricket
team and West Indians cricket team. The brands collaborated with the respective teams as their
official hygiene partner. They have then expanded their sponsorship portfolio in cricket by
colloborating with CPL which is T20 tournament in Caribbean (West Indies cricket) as their
official hygiene partner.

Recently Lifebuoy also collaborated with England Cricket Board (ECB) to promote its brands
through LED signage at studiums with addition to Advertising package and player access
during mathces. Lifebuoy also colloborated with Mclaren Racing as their official hygiene
partner.

Changes Due to Covid-19

At a time of a pandemic like this one, it is very important to be a little ahead of your game to
adopt to all the sudden heavy changes and be able to provide at the right time to stay up in the
market and enjoy the first-mover’s advantage. Dettol is one of the companies that caught on
the Covid trend quite early, launching products like laundry and surface disinfectants, much
before than its competitors. Apart from launching necessary products before-time, it also took
significant steps to become a Hero at the time of crisis.

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• Ramping Up Production

After the rapid outbreak of coronavirus all around, demand for hygiene products specially
handwashes surged exponentially. Reckitt Benckiser (RB)’s brand Dettol being the market
leader, had to suddenly up its production many folds amidst the already present situation of
reducing manpower, owing to migration of labourers during the lockdown and also keeping
the social distancing in the care.

The brand, being a responsible corporate, issued the following statement to spread a positive
assurance amongst pupils: -

• Getting Scientific Approval

The brand’s disinfectant was the most trustworthy amongst people for protection against the
virus, portrayal for which received some flak as there wasn’t any scientific evidence to back
such assurance. Although now it has gained some significant proof for its effectiveness, gaining
immense credibility as a market leader.

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• Swasth Banega India – Paighem e Sehat

Dettol was already involved in a national campaign “Banega Swachh India” for 5 years,
alongside NDTV. Amitabh Bachhan has been the face of the campaign spreading awareness
about critical health issues in India. In the light of this major pandemic, the campaign has re-
branded to Swasth Banega India, reaffirming the focus on WASH (Water, Sanitation and
Hygiene). Dettol collaborated with the All-India Organization of Imams of Mosque aiming
55,00,000 madrasa schools. The program included engaging children via innovative methods
like through text and audio-visual content, training and games. The program successfully
impacted the lives of 1,00,000 kids in its first phase. The campaign also continues to focus on
its initial agendas - air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and
sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene.

• #HandWashChallenge

During this lockdown while people stayed inside the house, social media trends became their
favourite pastime, it became the best mode to spread across a message and Dettol too joined

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in. Dettol in partnership with TikTok (most popular social media site of that time) launched
#HandWashChallenge to raise awareness about washing hands in just four simple steps. It was
a pretty interesting challenge that involved brand’s name as the user danced through the 4 steps
showing how to wash hands properly, using Dettol. The challenge gained a whopping 50 billion
views.

The campaign was kickstarted by popular celebrities like Avneet Kaur and Disha Patani. The
videos from top influencers alone garnered more than 3 million views.

• Protect Your Loved Ones, Hong Kong!

In Hong Kong, Dettol launched one of the earliest campaigns – “Protect your loved ones”. In
a three-and-a-half-minute advertisement, the campaign aims to highlight modern relationship
between a mother and a son, whilst comparing Covd-19 and Sars-2003. It showcases the love

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of a mother and the role of Dettol in protecting those we love and providing a secure
environment for all.

• Online to Offline Presence

Partnership with PVR

When the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting suggested that cinema halls should reopen
as the lockdown is easing up and people are coming out of their homes, Dettol was soon to see
the opportunity as it announced a long-term partnership with PVR to give “Dettol Protection”.
PVR venues will be equipped with hand sanitising stations and sanitiser dispensers. Dettol
Disinfectant liquid will be used to pre-sanitise the common lobbies and other utilities.

Partnership with Uber

Dettol in Australia joined Uber and Uber Eats in Uber’s $50 million global commitment
to provide equipment for clean and hygienic rides during Covid-19, providing drivers
free hygiene kits. As part of the agreement, the company will provide Dettol Disinfectant
Wipes and Dettol Instant Hand Sanitizer to drivers and delivery guys.

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• Hero against Plastic

The plastic situation during the lockdown had only worsened further, looking at which,
Dettol announced the launch of a special Handwash in 100% recycled (plastic-free) bottle.
It is a limited edition and is said to protest from 100 illness causing germs. Moreover, a
fraction of the sales of this particular product will go to ASSOCHAM foundation for plastic
waste recycling.

• Bringing Back to Normal – Kill Germs to Being Gentle

Dettol in its new advertisement has come up with a variant of its soap that’s a Beauty Soap as
well as an Anti-Bacterial Soap. It has a range called as “Dettol Co-Created with Moms” that
protects from germs and is also gentle on skin, made with ingredients that strictly critic moms
would approve of.
This changed brand positioning is touted to be in line with the fact that the world is now
accepting to be living with the virus and that we have to look beyond the pandemic. The virus

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has eased down its way into people’s lives now that the cases have milded down. Strategists
see it as a clever move as for a brand that’s a perfect fit for a pandemic, needs to keep its
running post- pandemic as well, and the best way to reinstate itself is to give out its non-
pandemic benefits as well.

Recommendations for Future Promotional Activities

In order to sustain in the market, any brand or company needs to evolve continuously in its
marketing and promotional activities. In recent times, Dettol is performing handsomely in the
terms of market share and the rise in the market share is elevated with the impact of Covid-19.
There are many hygienic brands in the market which gives a tough competition to Dettol in all
its range of products. Whether the business is large or small, every brand needs a strong
promotional activity to attract the new consumers or retain the existing consumer base and
build a strong reputation and position in the market.

Following are some recommendations that can be considered with respect to the current and
future demand:

• Inspired from super saver pack of Dettol Handwash, which includes liquid handwash and
dispenser, Dettol can launch its Combo-Pack in which it can include the hand-sanitizers,
disinfectants and body soaps with the existing supersaver pack. This would be beneficial
for the consumers that they can have a combo pack of Dettol which includes all the
essentials for prevention of Covid-19. This would be beneficial for Dettol as well because
it can increase its market share in all the segments and would be helpful in increasing the
brand loyalty.

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• Dettol spends heavily on paid media like print ads, TV commercial and radio Ads. Dettol
also uses YouTube for promotion now in the era of social media Dettol should make viral
promotional videos and upload on the platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Dettol is
associated with “Swacch Bharat Abhiyan” so Dettol can do its promotion by donating it’s
merchandizes in rural areas and promote the campaign of cleanliness among the people.

• Dettol should tie up with super market chain and announce some special discounts for the
consumers purchasing the Dettol products from the super market or give some redeem
points on the purchasing of its products by Online mode of payments, which would promote
the “Digital India” Campaign run by the government of India.

• Dettol could tie up with the Hotels to include the daily usage products like soap, handwash,
sanitizer etc. in their rooms as complimentary merchandizes for their guest and also for the
usage for the staffs.

• Dettol could stand against some social causes like Health issue in Rural Areas and donate
some of its product which would promote it product and encourage the consumers to trust
the brand and buy the products for the stores.

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References

• Dettol: Official Website, 2020, Reckitt Benckiser. Retrieved from

https://www.dettol.co.in/en/
• Tandon S., 28 Jul 2020, Covid helps Reckitt Benckiser's Dettol soaps win market share
in India, Mint. Retrieved from https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/covid-
helps-reckitt-benckiser-s-dettol-soaps-win-market-share-in-india-
11595944594739.html
• Report ID: FBI102841, June, 2020, Soap Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By
Product Type (bath & body soaps, kitchen soap, and laundry soaps), Form (solid &
liquid), Application (household and commercial), Distribution channel, and Regional
Forecast, 2020-2027, Fortune Business Insights. Retrieved from
https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/soap-market-102841
• Wikipedia, Lifebuoy (soap), Wikipedia. Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifebuoy_(soap)
• Expert Market Research, 2020, Global Bath Soap Market to grow at a CAGR of 5%
between 2021-2026, EMR Retrieved from
https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/bath-soap-market
• Bhasin, H. (2020, January 25). Marketing mix of Dettol. Retrieved from
https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-mix-of-dettol/
• Bhambhure N. (2013, September 26). Marketing Journal. Retrieved from
https://nikhilbhambureblog.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/promotions-imcatlbtl/
• Dettol. School Programme. Retrieved from https://www.dettol.co.in/en/about-
us/school-programme/
• Dettol. Disaster Relief. Retrieved from https://www.dettol.co.in/en/about-us/disaster-
relief/
• Dettol. About Banega Swachh India. Retrieved from
https://www.dettol.co.in/en/about-us/about-banega-swachh-india/
• Sachitanand, R. ( 2020, Nov 23). For Unilever, pandemic provides new purpose for
brand Lifebuoy. Retrieved from https://www.campaignindia.in/article/for-unilever-
pandemic-provides-new-purpose-for-brand-lifebuoy/465042

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• UKEssays. (Nov 2018). Lifebuoy Is The Worlds Number One Soap Marketing Essay.
Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/lifebuoy-is-the-worlds-
number-one-soap-marketing-essay.php?vref=1
• Tewari, S. (2019, Jan 19). HUL promotes its hygiene brand Lifebuoy at Kumbh Mela.
Retrieved from https://www.livemint.com/industry/advertising/hul-promotes-its-
hygiene-brand-lifebuoy-at-kumbh-mela-1548739952005.html
• Carp, S. (2020, Dec 11). The Hundred confirms ‘UK£10m’ Unilever deal. Retrieved
from https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/the-hundred-sponsorship-unilever-sure-
lifebuoy-ecb
• Barlaskar, A.H. (2020, Jul 27). Dettol - PVR partnership: What does it mean for both
the brands?. Retrieved from https://www.afaqs.com/news/mktg/dettol-pvr-partnership-
what-does-it-mean-for-both-the-brands
• Kulkarni, S. (2020, Aug 2020). Germ kill can be "gentle", says Dettol in an ad for new
soap variant, targeting moms. Retrieved from
https://www.afaqs.com/news/advertising/germ-kill-can-be-gentle-says-dettol-in-an-
ad-for-new-soap-variant-targeting-moms
• Mumbrella. (2020, Jun 10). Uber partners with Dettol to provide drivers with hygiene
kits. Retrieved from https://mumbrella.com.au/uber-partners-with-dettol-to-provide-
drivers-with-hygiene-kits-630728
• August 31 2020, Dettol Campaign in Hong Kong Draws Links Between COVID-19
Pandemic and Sars Epidemic, Branding in Asia,
https://www.brandinginasia.com/dettol-campaign-in-hong-kong-draws-links-between-
covid-19-pandemic-and-sars-epidemic/

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